North American Free

Annapolis. -- An important part of every governor's job is to listen when the voters have something to say. And one thing I have heard a lot lately is that we should focus on problems right here at home and forget about building relationships with other countries or developing our capacity to compete internationally.We no longer have that choice. We live in a world that has changed dramatically over the last few decades. Technology, communications, transportation have brought all nations physically closer.

Democrats yearn for the bounteous days of Bill Clinton's presidency, when the economy was flourishing, there were good jobs at good wages and poverty was on the wane. So it's a puzzle that on one of his signature achievements - the North American Free Trade Agreement - the party's presidential candidates are sprinting away from his record as fast as they can. It's as though Republicans were calling for defense cuts while invoking Ronald Reagan. Even Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton can't bring herself to defend the deal her husband pushed through.

WASHINGTON -- Whatever claims have been made for or against the North American Free Trade Agreement during the national argument over its passage, one thing is certain: None has been understated.To hear each side tell it, we are either on the verge of a golden dawn of global opportunity with an accelerating economy and higher-paying jobs, or a grim return to depression with wages and work standards dragged ever lower by an unequal partnership with an impoverished neighbor.Hyperbole has become humdrum as the charges and counter-charges have escalated: Images of the Last Supper have been invoked, the Louisiana Purchase recalled, and comparison made with the 1964 Civil Rights Act.There is likely to be more of the same today when the House of Representatives agonizes aloud over whether to create the world's largest free trade zone among the United States, Canada and Mexico.

PRESIDENT BUSH wanted to talk about free trade. His counterparts at the Summit of the Americas pointedly did not; they focused on the plight of the poor in their home countries. At the end of the two-day summit this week in Mexico, neither agenda prevailed and the conference ended with the Latin Americans grudgingly resigned to pushing ahead on talks for a hemisphere-wide free-trade zone. Mr. Bush didn't change anyone's mind with his pitch that free trade was "the most certain path to lasting prosperity," but as far as these summits go, the president gained more than he lost.

MEXICO CITY -- While the furious debate over the North American Free Trade Agreement reaches its deciding moment in the United States, the debate in Mexico has only recently begun to heat up.The sort of intense criticism of NAFTA in the United States has not been allowed in the news media here. However, over the last week, opponents have succeeded in getting their voices heard.Their successes may seem small compared with the efforts of NAFTA opponents in the United States. And the messages of opposition may be too late to have any effect on the vote in the U.S. Congress today.

WASHINGTON -- After long weeks of bargaining and cajolery, Bill Clinton is poised to record one of the most significant victories of his young presidency in tonight's showdown vote in the House on the North American Free Trade Agreement.Yesterday, for the first time, a flurry of new commitments put Mr. Clinton ahead of the NAFTA opponents in public commitments. And as the day wore on, the president's lead appeared to be widening.Mr. Clinton declared in a television interview last night that he "will be surprised" if the agreement doesn't gain approval.

EL PASO, Texas -- Celia Rodriguez came to the United States more than 30 years ago from Mexico. For most of that time, she lived out the immigrant's dream. She advanced through several jobs in clothing factories and became an inspector. She married, raised a family and became a citizen.The dream soured in 1996 when, responding to the incentives of the North American Free Trade Agreement, the garment industry fled this west-Texas border town. Rodriguez lost her job. Though she has gone through a federal retraining program and is still job-hunting, she hasn't worked since.

NAFTA accord reported nearNegotiators from Canada, Mexico and the United States have completed most of their work on labor and environmental issues connected with the North American Free Trade Agreement and might announce side agreements on these issues as soon as today or tomorrow, officials and congressional aides said.

Baltimore needs Mother Teresa for more than one day.If the Serbs don't cut it out, we'll . . . we'll . . . we'll . . .We have to go shooting into Bosnia and Somalia to save people's lives.Negotiators are wrapping up the North American Free Trade Agreement pronto so that abortion won't be the only emotional issue of this election.Yo-yo-ing in space didn't work. The next experiment will be Ultimate Frisbee.

Just in time, before the North American Free Trade Agreement is initialed tomorrow in the presence of the leaders of the United States, Mexico and Canada, Gov. Bill Clinton has announced his support for the treaty -- as written. This is a far cry from the demands of organized labor and Democratic protectionists in Congress for a renegotiation that, in effect, could kill the landmark pact.To give himself political cover, the Democratic candidate for president tossed in all sorts of caveats and ambiguities that the Bush administration equates with holding the treaty hostage.

MIAMI - Eddie Bartee Jr. practically has molten steel coursing through his blood: He grew up in Sparrows Point. His father spent 26 years as a leader of the United Steelworkers local at Bethlehem Steel Corp.'s sprawling plant at the mouth of the Patapsco River in eastern Baltimore County. And when Bartee began working at the factory three decades ago, he joined more than two dozen other family members already there. But since Bethlehem filed for bankruptcy protection last year and its shrunken Baltimore plant was taken over by International Steel Group Inc. of Cleveland, Bartee has seen many of those relatives struggle with the loss of pension and health care benefits in retirement.

Morgan Wheeler, a Baltimore electrician and union member, has for nearly a decade been opposed to free-trade agreements that he believes cost U.S. jobs and allow companies to push environmental concerns aside to increase profits. But with the number of manufacturing jobs shrinking and more than 300 of his fellow electricians out of work, Wheeler is now angry enough to take to the streets with that cause. Last weekend, he and his wife headed to Belvedere Square in North Baltimore to hand out fliers denouncing the Free Trade Area of the Americas, a proposed international agreement that would end many restrictions on trade within the Western Hemisphere.

THE STUNNING aspect of the summit of 34 American nations in Quebec City over the weekend was that all the heads of government were elected by their peoples. That has often not been the case in the Americas. This legitimacy is what stands out most about their commitment to strengthen democracy in the hemisphere and to negotiate a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) by 2005. Only Fidel Castro of Cuba was not there, excluded by the club as a dictator. President Jean-Bertrand Aristide of Haiti endured a lecture from the host, fellow Francophone Prime Minister Jean Chretien of Canada, for the shortcomings in his election last May. The notion of restricting the proposed free trade area to democracies, though vaguely stated, strengthens fair elections and discourages coups.

EL PASO, Texas -- Celia Rodriguez came to the United States more than 30 years ago from Mexico. For most of that time, she lived out the immigrant's dream. She advanced through several jobs in clothing factories and became an inspector. She married, raised a family and became a citizen.The dream soured in 1996 when, responding to the incentives of the North American Free Trade Agreement, the garment industry fled this west-Texas border town. Rodriguez lost her job. Though she has gone through a federal retraining program and is still job-hunting, she hasn't worked since.

SOUTH AMERICA has changed since the last U.S. president, George Bush, visited in 1990. It is more democratic, more prosperous, more modern and has freer markets. President Clinton may have tried to emulate the hollow rhetorical flourishes that have characterized the relationship. But his mission differs from previous presidential descents on the continent.The president is not pushing small Latin republics around. He may have embraced Venezuela's President Rafael Caldera yesterday, but what he wants is more oil from that country, and less cocaine.

MEXICO CITY -- President Clinton arrived last night for a two-day visit kicking off his first Latin American tour -- and giving this capital a more festive air than usual for Cinco de Mayo.But Clinton's appearance also starkly underscored the huge gap that exists in this country between the upper classes able to ride the bandwagon of the new global economy and those left behind by the North American Free Trade Agreement and other efforts at modernization.Clinton and his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, who arrived earlier in the day, are staying in the swank Presidente Inter-Continental, a luxury hotel in the middle of a toney neighborhood called Polanco, known for its fancy restaurants and expensive boutiques.

WASHINGTON -- The World Bank announced yesterday a $1.8 billion environmental-loan program for Mexico, a down payment on the multibillion-dollar border cleanup that would occur if the North American Free Trade Agreement is approved."

THE UNITED States faces a momentous decision this month whether to negotiate a free trade agreement for the entire North American continent. This is not a partisan issue; it is a pivotal statement about the kind of country we are and want to become.Do we fear that free trade with a poorer neighbor will hurt American workers, or do we have confidence that our nation's comparative advantages will permit all sides to gain by such an agreement? Do we fear being overrun by Mexican migrants, overwhelmed by the Spanish language and swamped by Mexican pollution, or do we have confidence that immigration under a more cooperative relationship is a source of economic strength and cultural diversity -- and that we can work together with Mexico to ensure the improvement of health and environmental standards in both countries?

With respect to NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) and GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade), President Clinton brought closure to great initiatives by Republican predecessors. The shoe is on the other foot for AFTA (the proposed Americas Free Trade Agreement).Mr. Clinton has led 22 presidents and 12 prime ministers in endorsing the concept of free trade from Baffin Island to Tierra del Fuego and setting a realistically challenging date of 2005 for final agreement on terms.

The summit of the Americas in Miami today through Sunday will fail if it produces only a vague statement of intent to create an Americas Free Trade Area (AFTA) in the next century.It will succeed if it establishes a date for negotiations and achievement nearer than the goals in the Asia-Pacific rim declaration at the APEC meeting in Indonesia; if it brings Chile next year into negotiations on joining the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA); if it mobilizes pressure on the uninvited Fidel Castro to allow democratic change in Cuba; if it can make progress on the narcotics and environmental crises.